§ MAJOR RASCH (Essex, S. E.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Trade whether his attention has been called to the charge against the Great Eastern Railway Company, at Colchester on 7th July, of cruelly beating and ill-treating cattle in transit, the evidence being that the men were beating and ill-treating the animals and twisting their tails in order to get them up, which, owing to the crowded state of the trucks, they could not do, after which they got up the beasts that were down by beating them with sticks in the softer parts, one man inserting a stick into the soft part after twisting the tail, etc.; whether he is aware that the Bench dismissed the case without calling evidence for the defendants; and that the chairman stated that he considered the practice a most grossly cruel one; and if the Department would consider the advisability of making some representation to the company on the subject of the cattle traffic?
§ MR. RITCHIEI have been in communication with the Great Eastern Railway Company with reference to the case referred to, and the General Manager has addressed a letter to the Board of Trade, in which he says—
My directors strongly disapprove of cruelty to animals, and they have ordered the cattle arrangements on this railway to be very fully gone into and a communication made with several of the other principal railways, with a view of seeing to what extent (if any) they can be improved.